The “Belmont” home of Captain Farlinger, first built i 1834, remodelled in 1879 and demolished in 1958 for the Seaway Project. (photo from UP THE FRONT A STORY OF MORRISBURG, E.W. Morgan)

The poem was written in 1893 and first published in “Saturday Night” that year. The author Mabel MacLean Helliwell of Toronto was a friend of Miss Eleanor Farlinger. She spent several weeks visiting “Belmont” in 1893 and during her visit “ran the rapids” several times with the late Harley Killaly as escort.

If you are interesting in learning more about “running the rapids” of the St. Lawrence, THE LIVING RIVER – SECRETS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE, takes the reader on an illustrated trip down the river. The book was published early 2017 by Quarry press and is available for $30 at the Cornwall Community Museum or at Coles/Chapters/Indigo throughout Eastern Ontario.

Just one of many of Morrisburg’s stately homes turned into a tourist home to meet the needs of visitors to Dr. Locke’s clinic in Williamsburg.